The invention relates to an arrangement in connection with a rack for orderly storage and/or for keeping of syringes, each with a luer projection ready for use, the rack also comprising receptacle means for the syringes.
Syringes are used in all departments of the health sector. Some people inject themselves, e.g. diabetes patients, but in most cases the injection, i.e. the contents of the syringe, are administered by a medical practitioner or a nurse.
The patient/user receives the injection either subcutaneously (under the skin), intramuscularly (in the muscle), or intravenously (via the vein system). The syringe contents (medicament) may be administered by connecting the syringe with an intravenous cannula or by providing the syringe with a syringe needle which is introduced under the skin or into a muscle. Injections may also be administered in spinal/epidural ducts.
In any case, every object to be used must be sterile.
Syringes are filled by sucking the contents of an ampule or another container through a suction cannula. Such medicament suction may, e.g., be carried out in the patient's home, in separate syringe medicament rooms, in surgical theatres, wards for intensive care, etc.
In a surgical theatre, syringes filled with a medicament are e.g. placed on an anaesthetics table. During administration to the patient and maintenance of anesthelization, the medicament is administered as required. Use of several different syringes during one anesthetization is not uncommon, and this means that there will be a plurality of syringes, ampulses and needles, etc., in circulation. Conditions may easily become slightly chaotic, since may different medicaments are also used. The hazard of making an error or administering a wrong medicament will increase when syringes, after some time, lie about in a mess, e.g. in an acute situation. This may happen in spite of the fact that each syringe should be marked with the kind of medicament to be administered.
As known, use of syringes generally requires the strictest possible hygiene, and the syringe or syringes, thus, must be kept under maximum hygienic conditions and safety against confusion, from the moment they are filled and until they are used. A common procedure today is that a sterile stop or plug is provided on the syringe tip upon the syringe being filled, and if the syringe tip is sterile. The syringe needle is kept in a sterile wrapping until it is to be used. Another procedure is to keep the syringe needle on the syringe, e.g. inserted in the ampule with the medicament to be used.
In the course of daily routines filled and ready syringes are kept on a tray or the like in a refrigerator, or on the patient's bedside table, etc. before the injection is administered to the patient. Often, it happens that the syringe is not reposing where it was put, but rolls about on the tray or may even fall onto the floor. Needles and/or tips then often become less than sterile. The syringes have no firm bed and conditions easily get chaotic. The hygienic situation, as mentioned, may also become hazardous.
For inocculation or for administration of injections to many persons, a plurality of equal syringes are often prepared. They are put side-by-side. It is unsatisfactory to have syringes lying about freely, because they may roll about and/or be touched in an undesirable manner, so that sterility is lost. It is even more difficult to maintain necessary hygienic conditions when there are different medicaments to be administered at the same time.
The conventional system as regards storage of syringes with medicaments, from the moment the syringe is filled with the medicament and until the latter is administered, is thus not satisfactory. There is a hazard of sterility being lost, since routines do not comprise a firm and/or steady holder for the syringes. There is a hazard of administrating a wrong medicament and/or a wrong dosis. In acute situations it will often be difficult to take in everything at a glance, e.g. when several filled syringes are placed together in a bowl or the like in a refrigerator. Some medicaments are stored for up to 24 hours after having been sucked in a sterile manner into a syringe, with a sterile plug/needle on the tip. This, obviously, does not improve conditions are regards hygiene. One of the known systems used to day, luer plugs, are bushing members having a cone shaped portion at one end with a finishing external locking thread. At the other end there is a bushing portion shaped with a slightly larger diameter and an internal locking thread, adapted to the cone shaped locking thread. The cone has a conical blind bore, adapted to the conical shape of the syringe tip, and the bushing member has an internal coaxial conical plug which is adapted, to the conical blind bore in the locking cone.
When a medicament is to be sucked into a syringe from an ampule or the like, this is commonly carried out through a suction cannula which is placed onto the syringe tip. When the syringe has been filled, the suction cannula is removed and a sterile luer plug is provided instead. When the medicament is to be administered, the luer plug is removed and the syringe tip is provided with a needle or a cannula.